Gaza: Sneeze and you might get shot, UNICEF warns in alert against child killings

“During a period supposedly defined by restraint and protection, an average of one child was killed every day for more than eight months.,” said the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesman James Elder. “Those are absurd and devastating numbers.”

Killed while playing

Briefing journalists in Geneva via video from Amman, the UNICEF aid veteran noted that children “are not being killed in war zones” but rather in their homes, schools while playing football or fishing.

“They were shot at, bombed and hit by quadcopters” operated by the Israeli military, Elder continued.

The children’s deaths are among nearly 1,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza and more than 3,100 injured since the ceasefire began, according to health authorities in the territory.

“You sneeze near the Orange Line and you might get shot,” Mr. Elder stressed, referring to the “constant movement” of the so-called “Yellow Line” and “Orange Line” as the boundaries of Israel’s occupation.

‘Lack of accountability’

Uncertainty over border movements and a “lack of accountability” are the reasons for the high number of killings, and Israeli forces are responsible for “the vast majority of cases – more than 90 percent”, a UNICEF spokesperson said.

The UN and its partners have repeatedly warned that the conflict has had a huge humanitarian impact since the war erupted in October 2023, in response to Hamas-led terror attacks against Israel.

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), there are no fully operational hospitals in Gaza, while UNICEF warns that water remains a daily uncertainty for 1.1 million children.

“I spoke to mothers whose children were screaming because they didn’t have clean water to bathe [their skin]. “Imagine the parents who can’t fix it night after night,” Elder said. “The scale of human suffering in Gaza, inflicted on Gaza and perpetrated by others on Palestinian children, can hardly be compared with our lifetime.”

Currently, nearly 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, many repeatedly, while more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.

In an update to Security Council on Thursday, UN emergency aid chief Tom Fletcher reported that Israel’s rejection rate of aid missions to Gaza had fallen from 31 percent before the ceasefire to 11 percent now.

However, Palestinians in Gaza are still “deprived of the basic necessities that you all need for your own family: security, shelter, clean water, health services, education”he stressed.

Mr. Elder echoed that dismal assessment, explaining that although some of the fuel that reached the generators was still functioning properly, Israeli authorities did not allow spare parts into the region to repair the damaged engines, or the oil needed to keep the engines running smoothly.

“This is the environment in which my colleagues in the field work, keeping children breathing without dignity,” he said.

Other major problems remain unresolved in Gaza caused by delays and refusals to deliver aid, including the large amount of solid waste that is still piling up, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN aid coordination office. Ocha.

“We’ve all heard stories about rats, insects and so on, causing this. So, there is a chance, there is a possibility to eliminate all that, but we don’t get access to it,” he told reporters in Geneva.

More killings in Lebanon

An OCHA spokesperson also condemned the continuing turmoil in Lebanon overnight, with reports that at least 18 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the south targeting Hezbollah fighters.

“We saw the same reports overnight, of course, with great concern, frankly…further fighting wouldn’t help anyone,” said Laerke, highlighting the high humanitarian needs in Lebanon and especially in the southern region.

“It’s much easier and quicker to hurt and cause damage than to restore people’s livelihoods, return them to their homes, feed them, and so on. Just one or two days of fighting means months, sometimes years, of humanitarian operations on the ground.”

According to UNICEF, more than 770,000 children are experiencing increased stress after repeatedly experiencing violence, loss and displacement.